The deranged Queens father who allegedly stabbed his wife and 2-year-old daughter to death with a kitchen knife while FaceTimed his nephew has been charged with both homicides, police said Monday.
Ernesto Cruz, 54, was charged with two counts of murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the horrific Saturday evening attack on Forest Avenue near Menahan Street in Ridgewood, police said.
Cruz was using the Apple video app to communicate with his nephew when he allegedly knifed his 41-year-old wife Ana Pilatagsi-Moposita 18 times and his toddler daughter Analiz Cruz nine times, both in the neck and chest, according to ABC 7.
The terrified nephew dialed 911 as the murders unfolded on his screen, and officers arrived to discover that the father had stabbed himself in the chest.
According to police, both victims were taken to local hospitals and died as a result of their injuries.
Cruz was also hospitalized and listed in stable condition Monday, according to police. It was unclear whether he would be arraigned virtually from the hospital.
One neighbor who spoke with the bereaved family claimed Cruz had previously been mentally abusive to Pilatagsi-Moposita and threatened to kill her several times.
“He told her repeatedly, ‘One day, I’m going to kill you.'” “That means he planned it,” the neighbor told The Post on Sunday.
However, police confirmed on Monday that the couple had no documented history of domestic violence with the NYPD.
Cruz’s only brush with the law occurred on December 23, 2022, when he was issued a summons in the city’s transit system, but the circumstances surrounding that incident are unclear, according to cops.
The same neighbor told The Post that the woman’s two sons, who lived separately with their father, were desperately trying to contact their mother on the day of the murders.
“Oh, my God! You don’t want me to describe their reactions. After spending the entire day calling your mother, you arrive to learn that she has been killed. The neighbor described the sons’ reactions as a shock and panic attack. “Everyone was crying, bawling.”
Other neighbors described Cruz and Pilatagsi-Moposita as a seemingly idyllic couple who could be seen pushing their child in her stroller while going shopping or doing the laundry.
“They were a normal family, that’s why it’s so shocking,” one neighbor said. “No one heard anything.”
